Theory of Mind Ability and Socioeconomic Status, a Study of Street-Connected Children and Adolescents in Ecuador

IF 3.4 Q2 Medicine
Graham Pluck
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引用次数: 3

Abstract

Family socioeconomic status (SES) is closely associated with cognitive ability in children and adolescents. However, most of the research has come from high-income countries. There is only limited research on ‘street children’, who represent an aspect of low-SES particularly associated with low- and middle-income counties. The current research in Quito, Ecuador, compared a group of street-connected youth with a not street-connected control group on two different measures of theory of mind ability and verbal comprehension. Initial analysis revealed that the street-connected sample scored significantly below the level of the control sample for verbal comprehension. For the main analysis, street-connected youth were matched to control participants for age, sex, and verbal comprehension scores. The street-connected sample was found to perform significantly below the control sample on both measures of theory of mind. Furthermore, worse performance appeared to be linked to severity of symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) within the street-connected sample. In conclusion, the association of relatively poor verbal comprehension with street-connectedness is consistent with existing research from high-income countries on SES gradients and cognitive development. In contrast, theory of mind ability, a core aspect of social cognition, may be particularly linked to the street-connectedness form of low SES that exists in many low- and middle-income countries.
心智能力理论与社会经济地位——对厄瓜多尔街头流浪儿童和青少年的研究
家庭社会经济地位(SES)与儿童和青少年的认知能力密切相关。然而,大多数研究都来自高收入国家。对“街头儿童”的研究有限,他们代表了低社会经济地位的一个方面,特别是与中低收入县有关。目前在厄瓜多尔基多进行的研究比较了一组与街头有联系的年轻人和一组未与街道有联系的对照组在心理能力和语言理解理论两个不同指标上的差异。初步分析显示,与街道相连的样本在言语理解方面的得分明显低于对照样本。在主要分析中,街头青年与对照参与者在年龄、性别和语言理解得分方面进行了匹配。与街道相连的样本在心理理论的两个指标上的表现都明显低于对照样本。此外,在与街道相关的样本中,较差的表现似乎与创伤后应激障碍(PTSD)症状的严重程度有关。总之,相对较差的语言理解与街道连通性的关联与高收入国家关于SES梯度和认知发展的现有研究一致。相比之下,作为社会认知的核心方面,心智能力理论可能与许多中低收入国家存在的低社会经济地位的街头联系形式特别相关。
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来源期刊
Psychosomatics
Psychosomatics 医学-精神病学
CiteScore
3.20
自引率
0.00%
发文量
0
审稿时长
6-12 weeks
期刊介绍: The mission of Psychosomatics is to be the leading psychiatry journal focused on the care of patients with comorbid medical and psychiatric illnesses. The scope of Psychosomatics includes original research, review articles and clinical reports that address psychiatric aspects of medical illnesses and their management. Areas of particular interest include: the effect of co-morbid psychiatric conditions on the management of medical illness; the psychiatric management of patients with comorbid medical illness; educational content for physicians and others specializing in consultation-liaison (C-L) psychiatry; and, the provision of psychiatric services to medical populations, including integrated care.
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